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So I’m 33 and the IT Manager for wholesale distributor with 5 locations and 40 employees. I pieced together my first PC when I was 15 and I have been hooked ever since. Lately thought I find myself frustrated, very unhappy, and unfulfilled. I would classify my skill level as a jack of all trades, master of none. I do not have a college education, nor any certifications. I am spread very thin and wear many hats, as I imagine most of you do. I am undecided if I am burnt out on IT as a whole, or just lack proper motivation and training at my current position so I don’t feel like every day I walk into work it is sucking the life out of my soul.

I have considered a complete departure from anything related to technology and moving towards something more rewarding where I feel like I am actually contributing positively to something by helping others as an advocate for people. Currently I just feel like the guy behind the scenes pushing buttons, just going through the motions.

I can rant for hours about all the things that frustrate me, but I don’t feel that would be a wise use of this forum. I have a few ideas about what direction I think I should take, but I am looking for some input/advice/criticism etc… Anything will help at this point.

I am looking on Amazon for study books for IT related certifications. I believe that even though I have years of hands on experience, if I don’t have the certifications, my worth as an asset to a company will not be fully realized. I am thinking about starting out with N+ , then Security + and specializing as a network admin eventually getting the CCNA certs. I was going this direction based on advice from a friend of mine who is a network engineer. If this is direction I decide on, what is the best path to follow? Which books should I use? Which certs should I go after? What kind of time frame can I expect to follow from start to finish? What are the pros and cons of specializing as a network engineer?

Am I thinking about this all wrong? How important is a 4 year degree at this point in time? I was enrolled in school a couple years ago, but due to scheduling and traveling conflicts with my current position, I had to drop out. What about online classes? How does that work? Is the debt acquired from school worth it in the end when I can just get certifications instead? While I have considered getting out of IT all together, I don’t want waste all the experience I have accumulated.

I feel I lack proper training to effectively do my job currently. Technology changes, evolves, and has become more complex and I fell as if I am left behind, struggling, google’ing how to do my job. I do not like the feeling of just barely getting by.

I have to have a job, I realize that, but is it too much to ask that I actually enjoy what I’m doing? I know the economy is in the tank, companies are down sizing, people are unemployed. I am grateful that am employed and have an income. Should I just suck it up, hunker down, and deal with it?

If nothing else I just needed to purge this out of my system, so thank you for taking the time read my thoughts.

Sam

@VMware

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www.Trainsignal.com

check them out if you want to continue your certs my man. Study on your own time, for the exams you want to take.

I would suggest CCNA, A+, Net+, Security+, or LPI as a jumping off point. LPI will get you Linux +.

Network, security, and linux professionals are always in high demand, each is very specialized in their category, and each has a specific goal. These specific goals are very rewarding when you reach them.

By getting any of these certs you’ll surpass being the guy that a company wants, and become the guy a company needs. Need = $$$$, Want = $

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Have 1direction

Sorry couldn’t resist

http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/5873-how-to-get-certified may help

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Sound very depressing reading this as I was on the same boat minus the certifications. I think you’ve lost purpose and goal within your position in the organization you work for. Are you not being challenged at all? New Projects? Finding Projects for yourself would be another solution to get out of the mundane tasks that you go through daily.

Is the company providing your resources to learn new things? I think every IT goes through this, almost like a mid-life crisis which we will go through a few times. How long have you really been in IT? I mean years of experience doing Sys/Net Admin related stuff?

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I dont have a degree, either. I have a bunch of certs and hardwork from the bottom up. I have had any difficulty finding a position when job searching. I am very happy where I am at now, though. My pay is better than average in my area for my duties.

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Feeling your pain fella, I never had a university education myself and originally wanted to be a motor mechanic, only for the local training centre to close, I went back to the careers officer who asked if I had any other interests…I did not. I did have an amstrad pc in the house (cpc464, mono screen for those that care) and the officer advised me to maybe think about computers.

I started off training and did a part time placement in Hughes Christensen in Belfast which was a glorified teaboy and AS/400 dogsbody. From there I got a full time job with a fairly local Outsourcing company and worked with them for 9 years moving from junior field engineer to senior, then onto Disaster Recovery where the job bored me to tears and moved on, did 2 years IT support in a software house then moved to where I am now in Manufacturing, I look after circa 100 users, the site is close by my home and I get to travel over to England on a bi monthly basis. We have a few other sites within the group also so daily work does vary a little.

Getting to my point, I sat plenty of MCP courses and exams, gained A+ and N+ etc but havent sat an exam in 4 years now and to be honest, really cant be bothered any more. I still enjoy my job, wages and situation is fine but I do occasionally keep an eye on the regional job advertisements looking at different vocations and I think that is where you should be too, the grass isnt always greener on the far away hills but sometimes it is nice to look over!

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If you feel that IT is not rewarding and you sense something else that will be, I think that you have your answer. You will always excel best where you are passionate. I’m sure you are good at IT. But why force yourself to be good when you can enjoy being great elsewhere?

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I only recently got a degree, since that seems to be a theme in the responses here. I have one now but only my most recent job (last two weeks) did I get since having one and even now I don’t put my degree on my resume because I want to be “sorted out” but crappy HR departments that think that degrees are challenges. If HR is hiring people because they have degrees, that’s not a shop that I want to work in. So I intentionally make sure only really good firms see my resume by doing that.

I hold zero stock as a hiring manager in peoples’ degrees. I’m far more likely to view it as not having confidence or the ability to learn on your own than as a positive.

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RE Certs: Certs are good but mostly for getting your foot in the door (or a specific role, not IT in general, that’s where college helps more.) You are past that point.

For someone with loads of experience and skills, certs are a decent way to push yourself to learn new things. For a lot of people (like me) certs are good for them to personally enhance their learning by not being able to skip topics or content areas and to validate that they were learning the material.

I have over 110 certs myself and have been a cert writer for years. However, like my college degrees, I have removed all of my certs from my resume as well.

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Look for the positive side and try to do a certification in VMware that is the hot topic right now

VMware Certified Associate (VCA):

There are currently 3 New VCA exams but in your case I would probably start with the VCA-DCV (Data Center Virtualization) which focuses on vSphere as the foundation.

After that you could even do the VCA-Cloud certification if you wanted to.

You’ll have to register for a login account at these VMware sites which is easy.

This is the training video for the VDA-DCV course:

Step by Step Instructions for registration to take the test when ready:

—Basically you request permission from VMware as noted in the instructions and then they will send a confirmation email and then you use that code to register for your test at the Pearson Vue website.

There is a 50% discount on the test until the end of the year i think. Plus there is another coupon you can use (see link below) and apply it when you register for the exam on Pearson Vue (when you get to page on how you are going to pay for the exam - there will be a button for PROMO CODE)…then use the code here:

http://www.perfectcloud.org/certification/vmware-vca-exam-experience-plus-free-exam-voucher/

I believe this particular voucher will expire at the end of October and when combined with the already 50% discount going on - will effectively make the TEST FREE.

Take it easy.

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You might start ‘specializing’ in your career path. What tech do you like the most? Pour your energy towards it, and you can get to some higher places. Love networking and all its intricacies? Become THE network guy. Like data analytics AND networks? You could be the next big security wonk in the biz. Maybe you want to know all there is to know about servers, SANs, and virtualization. You can use any and all of these skills in your career, and use it to improve your current setup.

I’ve been feeling in a rut lately too, and I’m working on motivating myself to learn and earn the VCP5-DCV certification (VMWare).

Best of luck to you, friend.

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This is easy. NO.

You will never, ever recoup that debt. Even if you work full time till you are 80. College, on average, produces a lifetime loss of income.

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No, don’t be fatalist. The IT industry nationwide is still short of people and unable to fill positions coast to coast. There are plenty of people still getting raises and earning more than before. I know lots of people moving “up” these days and the companies that they are leaving can’t fill their old positions - there just aren’t enough IT people to do it.

The market is not that horrible, not for skilled professionals. It’s not great, but it is good. Don’t just quit your job, but don’t stay where you are unhappy either. You are just hurting yourself.

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Most importantly, take some time, and identify if you are unhappy with your career path, your employer, or just how your skills are developed/utilized. If you want out of the game, go for it. First and foremost, you need to find joy in work, or you will be miserable as a whole. If you have some vacation you can burn off, take some YOU time to relax. Go camping or fishing or something. You may just need a good recharge.

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This is a very specific job. The pros are that you have an extremely well defined career path. The cons are that your work is very limited in scope and you are pigeon-holed.

As a network engineer you typically specialize on a vendor (Cisco, Juniper, Brocade, HP, etc.) and get certs in that area. Network Admin / Eng is the most cert-heavy part of the entire field and the most vendor specific.

You basically move up by moving up the vendor cert ladder. Your work is very well defined, moreso than any other part of IT.

To me, this is the worst job in IT, it is so limited and boring. But a lot of people really enjoy it. All depends on your personality.

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College is a good option for people who are concerned with being unable to work. College is about making it easier to get “any job.” But you have a job. College is bad if you want to get a “great job.” It’s a tradeoff.

The more college you have, the more likely you are to put food on the table. The less college you have, the more likely you are to put caviar on the table.

To it depends on your career goes. Quality or stability? Debt or investments?

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I can attest to this. When I was looking for a new Sys Admin, I had a hard time people applying for it and when I did, there were so many unqualified. So I understand that there is a shortage of good IT Professional.

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Have you any interest in programming? I started with Python which will also help in scripting and is an easy language to read and learn. I think having the IT background really helps with the path of a Developer, and hey, their in high demand too!

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I understand where you are coming from… I would take a step back, a few deep breaths and examine the situation… I wouldn’t get into a certificate program until you really understand what you want to do… I made the mistake years ago when someone told me to get my A+/CCNA certs, as I ended up really disliking the jobs that I ended up working through. In the back of my mind, I always knew what I wanted to do, but I felt it was to difficult, and I really wasn’t cut out for it (Software Development). Turns out I am, I love it, it makes me happy and feel accomplished. That is one thing you really need to shoot for, is fulfillment, whether it is in, or out, of IT… I don’t like people who just throw out suggestions to do something because, “That’s what I did!”… Each person has their own path, desires, goals… You have to determine what yours are.

As far as a degree goes, there are even some companies that won’t talk to you, unless you do have a degree, just depends where you want to work, and what those companies are looking for. If you have an idea of where you do want to work, it’s pretty easy to find out what they are looking for in job posts… I decided to get my degree because a lot of the companies I wanted to work for, required them (aside from experience).

I would recommend doing some soul searching, taking a weekend off, and going somewhere you can clear your thoughts (nature/fishing/camping for me), and think about the more important things in life… This has helped me in the past, it is tough to get through some times, being somewhere for so long, but taking this time, I have found, helps a ton, and I can make decisions once my head is clear.

Good luck man.

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A few years ago I was an admin for about 100 users in a small town in Missouri. I felt a lot like you are describing. Since relocating, now I admin 40,000 users as a part of a team.

Same skill set, completely different job.

And I find the new gig a lot more rewarding.

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